Ian Rapoport, while reporting on the Colts coaching search and hire timeline, slipped in a few jabs about Jeff Saturday.
The Indianapolis Colts did not make the first hire of the head coaching cycle. That would be the Carolina Panthers picking up Frank Reich. Instead, the Colts are taking their time, trying to find the right candidate.
One of the people they are considering is Jeff Saturday, who was the team’s interim head coach last season after Reich was fired midseason.
Ian Rapoport provided some insight on when the Colts plan to make a decision, but in the midst of that report he also low-key roasted Jeff Saturday.
“In today, Jeff Saturday the interim coach who still has a legitimate chance at the job despite his 1-7 record and not actually being a coach — despite the fact that he was interim coach this year — he also, he is certainly receiving consideration.”
Technically, Rapoport was just stating facts here.
Ian Rapoport suggests Colts are moving slow with their head coaching hire
So, what is the team’s timeline? The team is working through second interviews right now.
Here’s what Rapoport said:
“It sounds like this team is going to take through the weekend and into early next week before making a decision on their permanent head coach. Chris Bower, the general manager, wants to make sure that owner Jim Irsay has a look at a lot of candidates. Irsay, not involved in the first round of interviews, is involved in the second round, so we will say where they land. And if it is in fact Jeff Saturday, which I know would make the heads explode of many, many actual head coaches in the league.”
First of all, ouch, Rapoport went out of his way to call Saturday not an “actual” head coach not once, but twice in the span of 30 seconds.
A possible reason the Colts are moving slowly is that they are trying to talk Irsay out of Saturday as a real option at head coach. There have been reports indicating as much. That might be a hard sell given that Irsay is likely giving himself the final say on the hire.
All Bower can do is make sure Irsay really thinks this one through. Because Rapoport’s roasts are right, this is a 1-7 coach who doesn’t have the experience to step into full-time head coaching just yet.
Right now, maybe it’s worth trying to get Sean Payton in the door to convince Irsay off of Saturday, as Payton’s market is drying up. The Colts are the only team with a head coach opening that hasn’t had some sort of contact with him.